Typists, vend owners sit on dharna

Tribune News Service
Bathinda, March 13

Shop owners, typists and notary operators, along with their family members, sat on a dharna outside the District Courts Complex here where the MC had removed more than 100 vends, shops and makeshift offices of advocates during an anti-encroachment drive on Sunday. 

The vend owners have demanded from the administration to provide a site  so that they could resume their work.

They reached outside the District Courts Complex in the morning and started clearing the debris before laying mats on the bare floor at the site. To express their resentment, the vend owners decided to sit on an indefinite dharna outside the courts complex.

Darshan Singh, whose makeshift eating joint was removed during the anti-encroachment drive, said, “I have no source of income now and the lone source of income that I had has gone forever. Leave aside providing jobs, the government has demolished our shops which we had built after savings our hard-earned money. With barely any savings left now, how will I feed my children and family members? How will I meet their basic needs?” 

“If the administration wanted to remove our vends then it should have informed us in advance so that we could at least shift our articles and furniture. Apart from losing our source of earning, we could not find our essential goods after the drive,” he added.

Punya Devi, a protester, said, “We have decided to sit on a dharna and continue it until the administration provide us compensation and a location from where we can start operating our vends again.” 

Ajit Singh, executive member of the Typewriters Association of Bathinda, said, “Even if the administration cannot pay us compensation for the damages caused due to the anti-encroachment drive, it must provide us a location from where we can start our work again. We have met the district president of the Congress and Jaijeet Singh Johal and brother-in-law of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. We have also submitted a memorandum of demands to them. They have assured us that a possible solution would be worked out.” 

Notably, the MC and the PWD (B&R) had jointly carried out an anti-encroachment drive outside the District Courts Complex and removed more than 100 shops, vends, makeshift offices of typists, advocates and notary operators on Sunday. Following which the vend owners and advocates had staged a protest against the administration on Monday.